25 SCARY Facts About The Universe

 

the universe is crazy better yet it's  crazy scary  there is so much we don't yet understand  and what we do understand  we kind of don't understand if that  makes sense but  truth can be stranger than fiction time  works differently according to where ar  in space the twinkle of stars in the  night sky is like looking into a time  machine  billions of years into the past these  stars may have already exploded and died  and because of the speed of light is  only so fast we're yet to know about it  it's enough to really bake your noodle  and get your head swimming  there are some facts you just can't  unlearn  no matter how hard you try welcome to  [ __ ] nominal  today we're mixing horror with sci-fi in  25 scary facts  about the universe 1. the void  almost all of our ordinary matter is  hollow  dead area between the proton and neutron  containing atomic nucleus  and orbiting fields of electrons if you  removed  all this empty space the subatomic  particles contained within every one of  this  entire 7 million strong human race would  fit into the volume  of a sugar cube freaky  2. same same but different  most of the atoms you're made of were  born in the same place  that is the iron in your blood calcium  in your bones  carbon in your tissue and oxygen  powering your cells was created within a  star  billions of years older than the earth  that exploded  that's right we are literally stardust  3. small but big  dna is the building block of life it's  contained in every living cell  and is only a few nanometers wide  however  if you unraveled all of the dna in every  cell of a human and laid it out end to  end  it would make the 2.66 billion mile trip  to pluto and back  13 times and that's just one person  four how old are you hydrogen makes up  73 percent of the visible mass in the  universe  it makes up 62.9 percent of the human  body and is the most  abundant building block of organic life  over 99 of this abundance of hydrogen  was made during the big bang and  subsequent  three minutes of rapid inflation  afterwards technically  we are 13.7 billion years old that's a  lot of candles on the birthday cake  5. primordial broadcasting when you  change the channel  on an old analog cathode ray tube tv  there is a momentary flash of fuzzy  black and white static on screen  it's not only caused by the sun and  other farther away stars  with the cosmic background radiation  left over from the big bang and  formation of the universe  6. everlasting record what you do in  life echoes on an eternity  there is no place where this saying  rings true more than the surface of the  moon  though more than 50 years have passed  neil armstrong's brute prints are still  present here due to the lack of the  atmosphere  wind or rain to wash them away 7.  sound of silence in the vast nothingness  of space  no one can hear you scream it's not  because they're not listening  however it's because of the vacuum of  space lacks the gaseous particles  needed to act as a vibration medium to  carry sound waves over a distance  it's just a never-ending dark eerily  silent sea  of mostly empty space  8. we're twin venus is often referred to  as earth's twin  due to its size but the similarities  stopped there it's the only planet in  our solar system that rotates backwards  and time has a different meaning there a  day on venus lasts  243 earth days but  a year lasts just 225 earth days trippy  9. evil twin the earth is great  venus not so much it gets worse  as temperatures on the surface exceed  900 degrees fahrenheit the atmosphere is  90 times as dense as earth's and would  instantly crush  human better yet acid rainfall from the  clouds instead of water  awesome place for a holiday not  10. chunky monkey the sun is pretty big  but how big well it only accounts for  99.86 percent of the mass of the entire  solar system  it would take 1.3 million earths to fill  up its massive volume  and the best part eventually when it  runs out of fuel in 7.5 billion years  it will expand a red giant swallowing  the earth  11. diet what diet  an incredibly dense object known as a  neutron star has a mass  1.4 times the sun squeezed into a tiny  10 mile diameter just one tablespoon of  its material weighs  1 billion tons heavier than mount  everest  magnetic poles caused to rotate 600  times per second  bending space time around it 12.  the unseen when your mind swims at how  big the universe really is  know that there is so much more we can  see observable matter and detectable  electromagnetic energy make up an  abysmal five percent of the universe  with the dark matter accounting for 27  percent and dark  energy a whopping 68 percent  13. anything to survive being an  astronaut is an all-glory and ticketed  parades  scott kelly drank 730 liters of his own  recycled urine and sweat  during a year spent in orbit it gives  new meaning to the phase  waste not want not  14. deathbeam following the death of a  huge star  a supermassive black hole is formed this  isn't so dangerous by itself  however it spins particles around its  event horizon so fast  that they emit energy fired out in all  directions this  is known as a blazer shooting beams so  concentrated they are the force of a  hundred million stars  vaporize anything they touch darth  blazar's death star  15. subatomic assassin the higgs field  exists in the quantum realm and is made  up of quarks  and laptops that give protons and  neurons mass  this field exists in a resting state  that is thought to be metastable  if it is excited and pushed to true  stability the resultant force contained  in a single atom  could radiate outwards in a circle of  death and destruction  at the speed of light obliterating all  existence  16. near miss in july 2012  an extreme solar storm was a witness  that was the most powerful scene  in 150 years if it had hit the earth  then every power grid would have been  instantly fried this includes everything  with a circuit  including satellites computers fuel  injected cars and a whole lot more  welcome back to the 1700s 17.  galactic cannibalism in order for larger  galaxies to grow  they need to absorb other smaller  galaxies  essentially gobbling them up extreme  gravitational forces from the larger  galaxy draw in the unsuspecting smaller  galaxy  until it gets close enough to slowly  tear apart digesting it over millions  of years  18. mover and shaker most supermassive  black holes are stationary  sucking material in from their  surroundings the one in galaxy 3c  186 is different it's flying through  space at 5 million miles per hour  imagine inescapable jaws flying towards  you with mere  infinite gravitational force coming  towards you at incomprehensible speed  yeah big note  19 et phone home  there is almost an absolute certainty  that extraterrestrials are out there  somewhere in the far reaches of the  universe  the only problem is we are so limited in  our capabilities of perception and  communication  that by the time our radio waves are  received either the human race  the alien race or both will be long  extinct  the fermi paradox 20. the blackness  eventually the milky way galaxy will  merge with its neighbors causing them to  recede from view the quickening  expansion will overtake the speed of  light  causing other stars to drop out of view  what will be left is a completely black  sky  devoid of light and any evidence of the  big bang  ever existed 21.  the big rep a few billion years from now  the expansion of the universe may reach  its limit causing what some may call  the big rip the force permeating  space-time may be strong enough to blow  mata and atoms apart and even itself  causing reality  to cease to exist  22 the big crunch what has a beginning  has an end often called the big bang in  reverse  the big crunch is a probable outcome to  when an expansion slows down to an  eventual stop  reality would spring backwards like the  release of a rubber band causing space  time to retract back  to an infinite singular point 23.  goodbye moonmen the moon is an expanding  orbit  each year it's 1.5 inches further away  from us  at first it was 14 000 miles from earth  after formation  but now it's 250 000 miles away  in 600 million years if the visual size  from earth will be so small  that there will be no more full solar  eclipses  24. stellar zombie stars that experience  a rare type  lack supernova with lower ejection  velocity and luminosity  leave behind a white dwarf in a binary  system this white dwarf can literally  suck the material out of its neighbor  to come back to life much the same way a  zombie eats the brains of the living  25 stellar vampire blue stragglers are  young stars that burn hotter than their  neighbors  using up a lot of stored fuel in the  process they can remain young by  stripping away the hydrogen fuel from  their neighbors  keeping up the nuclear fusion reaction  for millions of years longer than they  should  maintaining their youth living an  immortal life without having to deplete  and go supernova